Recycling has become part of everyday life in many parts of the world, but that usually means recycling things like plastics, glass and paper. We often forget to recycle valuable materials that we actually really need, like metals. A new report from the UN says less than one third of the earth’s metals have a recycling rate more than 50%.

That creates a big–and ironic–problem: the green technology we want to invest in for the future depends on those materials, so if we don’t do a better job recycling them, we might not have enough to produce the clean energy we want. The metals used in semi-conductors, LED lights, hybrid car batteries or magnets in wind turbines are all precious materials that are disappearing fast.

The message from the European Environment Agency is clear: improve the recycling rates. So how can we do a better job recycling important metals? Tell us what you think!

Anoka Primrose Abeyrathne has been an eco-activist for 14 years. She was nominated as a Climate Champion and Global Changemaker by the British Council. Anoka is also an AshokaYouth Venturer for Social Entrepreneurship. For the GLOBAL IDEAS Blog she will be writing about her work as a Climate Champion and her experiences with climate change.

Part I
People my age like to have fun. That is why the initiative we set up, is a “fun + action” initiative. Within the Sri Lanka Youth Climate Action Network (SLYCAN), we organize debates at university level, beach parties, replantation or clean-up campaigns, interactive workshops, discussion platforms, art exhibitions and and street theatre plays.  All of these activities are popular with children and young people. They are the catalysts of change in the society, in becoming eco-responsible adults.

As a volunteer for the NGO EMACE Sri Lanka, I work with the communities of Bolgoda Lake in Sri Lanka on a grass roots level. This way we are creating a win-win situation. On the one hand we save the mangroves in the region. On the other hand we help the villagers by promoting eco-tourism or solar fishing lamps. We help to develop sustainable fishing techniques and we are looking for customers for the handmade and eco-friendly products of the people. A programme to train eco-tourism guides, handicraft methods and sustainable fishing is ongoing. All of these projects will be expanded at national level, collaborating with branches of EMACE and SLYCAN islandwide.

My work enabled me to be the SAARC Youth Award Recipient 2010, for Outstanding Contribution to the Protection of the Environment and Mitigation of Climate Change.
These may be small steps but the impact is growing and creating a wave of eco-positive change among youth in Sri Lanka.

Welectricity, the innovative social network, that we have mentioned before in GLOBAL IDEAS, has won an award at the prestigious Knowledge@Wharton/Wipro Technologies Innovation Tournament. The competition was held at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania on April 27th 2011. Welectricity has excelled and beat 44 other teams, that also made it to the semifinals. Welectricity’s web-based service was judged to be the “Best New Sustainability Innovation” (full press-release here). Well, congrats for the award! The idea behind Welectricity is absolutly worth it in our opinion. It allows users to track, compare and reduce their electricity consumption at home. Users from 86 countries worldwide are participating already.

We would like to give you the opportunity to watch the report that GLOBAL IDEAS made with the help of Welectricity again. In this post you will also find an interview we did during the filming in Kingstown, St. Vincent.

Germany is going electric in a big way. The government announced this week that it’s pouring 1 billion Euros in subsidies over the next two years to help develop the electric car industry.

Chancellor Angela Merkel announced she wants the country to become the world leader in electromobility with a million electric cars zooming around the roads in Germany by the year 2020.

And what’s more, the government is thinking about creating incentives for people who buy electric cars, like special parking and fast lanes as well as tax breaks. And it looks like the big carmakers will step up to the challenge. BMW is planning to release its an all-electric urban car – called the ActiveE – by 2013, and Audi, too, plans to unveil a series of electric cars.

Is electromobility the future of the auto industry? How long will it take for electric cars to dominate the roads? Tell us what you think!

Iranildo de Sousa Ferreira is a 16 year old student who has been working  in the environmental area for several years. He is a student and lives in the city of Ibiapina, Ceará in Brazil. Protecting the environment is his passion. Iranildo is writing for the GLOBAL IDEAS Blog about his experience with climate change and about projects he’s working on.

Part I

I am very concerned about climate change as it has progressed in recent years from mere conjecture to suspicion, and finally to reality – backed by real data. Now we know for sure that around the world, year after year, decade after decade, the world’s temperature is rising.

In 2010 I was selected to be a British Council Climate Champion by the selection process of the Climate Generation Programme in Latin America and the Caribbean. As a Climate Champion, I’m doing several actions in my city, my state and country to increase public awareness about climate change. My aim is to change habits and encourage mitigation and adaptation. I initiated and am involved with the Brazilian Government’s first Young Brazilian delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference where I will exercise the role of president.

To legitimize the performance of my actions and my work as a Climate Champion got great support from the people at the British Council in Brazil, with whom I keep in touch through the Project Manager, Ana Paula Bessa, who accompanies and guides me in the execution of my actions.

When we work on the issue of climate change, we must remember that climate change will affect all living beings on our planet, and so we can minimize the effects, not only by using clean energy technologies but we need something much bigger – we need everyone’s help. We must act now and start from our homes, our schools, our institutions. We will prove that the human beings are not what they say but what they do.